Advertisement
Published: July 30th 2019
Sunday - July 7 - We left the boatyard at Brindisi with Tsamaya in much better shape than when we arrived. It was a good stopover, but now we must continue our trip north. We left at 5:28 am and with the harbor so deep it took us 45 minutes to get to the entrance. It is always nice leaving this early as we are rewarded with wonderful sunrises. There wasn't much in the way of wind so unfortunately had to have our engine at about 2000 rpms as we had decided to stop and anchor at the town of Bari for the night and it would take us until 5:30pm to get there. With no wind it makes for a very warm passage and we were looking forward to jumping in the water when we got there. The only thing out of the ordinary on this passage was that we ran out of diesel in the tank we were working off of, but we knew we had a full 2nd tank so switched over to that and continued on our way. It is always a little bit of a guessing game as to how many hours you will run on
a tank of diesel. There are a number of factors at work - 1) the tanks in our boat are not a regular shape and as such they are hard to know with complete accuracy how many gallons each tank carries unless you run it out completely 2) when the engine is running we do not always run it at the same rpms as it can depend on the sea state and what speed we may need to maintain. We knew we were running low and knew it would not run out when we were doing any major maneuvers in a harbor so letting it run out will give us a better idea of how much that tank holds. We also knew that the fuel is less expensive in Montenegro so we were hoping to fill up there. We will see if we wait that long or if for a safety net we add some fuel to this tank before that time.
The anchorage at Bari is very shallow as we were in only about 8 feet of water! We had heard that places get shallower as we move north on the east coast of Italy so this definitely
confirmed that. It looked like it could be an interesting town to explore, but we decided to enjoy a swim instead and move on the next day.
Monday - July 8. - We had called ahead to make a reservation in the marina in Trani as we figured we stop for a couple of days. We were told to call on VHF 16 when we get to the harbor –we did and guess what - no one answers! Called on the phone – took some time but finally got the person I booked with – he kept talking to me while we kept moving closer and closer to the docks. He said the guys will tell us where to go. We did see 2 guys on the dock but they really didn’t pay attention to us. Finally they motioned where we should go and helped us in with us needing to use lines they supplied –that was a first. When talking to the guys that worked at the marina they seemed a little out of it, but it all worked out ok. We did our official business of checking in with the marina and later in the day when
A Great Shallow Anchorage in Bari
but we never got off the boat to exploreit cooled down some we walked the promenade. When you are getting close to Trani we had read that one landmark you wouldn't miss is the bell tower of the Cathedral - they were definitely right and will visit this sometime while here.
Tuesday - 7/9 Very hot but got out to walk around the historic district. Went to the Cathedral which is very impressive. Couldn’t take too much time inside as they were set up for a wedding that was going to start in about 30 minutes as people were already gathering. Even though we were by the sea, there wasn’t a breeze at all so with this heat we went and did our errands as quickly as we could (bank and grocery store) before we headed back to boat for lunch and to cool down.
Bob got the air conditioner out that we had bought back in Palermo – Bob wanted to get rid of it in Tunisia as he figured we would not need it again, but I convinced him that he might want to wait. He is glad I was able to change his mind. It definitely takes up more storage room than we’d
View Coming into Trani
with its distinct Cathedral and Bell Tower like, but it is at times like this that we appreciated having it. I typically do not like AC, but with the heat and humidity we have been having even I have been enjoying it.
We knew as soon as we came in to town there was a festival as there was a Ferris wheel and one of the churches was decorated and later that evening it was all lit up. We saw that the festivities were to go on for the week. On the schedule for tonight was a concert in the church in the evening. Even at 9PM it was very hot in the church, but it was an enjoyable concert by a wonderful clarinet and guitar player.
Wed. – 7/10 – We stayed on boat today – I worked on trying to get caught up on my blog postings, but as you can tell by the dates of our travels they are not as current as I’d like. As Bob says I take way too many photos as it takes me quite a bit of time to go through them and then write up the blog post. Oh well, he tells me it is a
monster I created for myself!
In the afternoon it really opened up –it rained hard for quite some time. With the temporary fix for hooking up the AC we had some leaks so buckets to the rescue. Wind picked up to 24 knots but this time we didn’t have waves over the dock which we had earlier in the day. When it stopped it was almost eerily calm. Later it started again and most of the afternoon that was the pattern. About 4pm we started to hear something hitting the boat – it was hail! The size of the hailstones was amazing. They were bouncing like crazy and it went on for about ½ hour. As Bob says hope it didn’t do any damage to our solar panel – they were so big and came down so hard. Yes, a good day to have stayed on the boat.
Thur – 7/11 – Yesterday Bob suggested I do some research to see if there was any place to take a day trip as the marina was quite inexpensive here and we had checked out the historic district of Trani. Fortunately when I had stopped at the tourist information center
in Brindisi I had been given information on the whole region of Italy. After reading through those it looked like there were a few places of interest to see in a neighboring town, Barletta. We only had to take a 12 minute train ride to get there and they ran quite regularly during the day so no real pressure about our return time. We hadn’t taken time for breakfast this morning so first on the agenda was finding a café which we did. That completed we went on into the older part of town down near the water. One item of interest was a very large bronze statute known as the Colossus of Heraclius (although they really aren’t sure who it is of) It is over 5 meters tall and they have a few theories about how it got to Barletta. The main theory is that it washed up on shore after a Venetian ship sank returning from the sacking of Constantinople in 1204. Even though the identity of the emperor is not positive, it is known that the statue was discovered in 1231 during excavations at that time. One other fact that is certain is that part of the
legs and arms were used by locals to cast bells by the Dominicans in 1309. The bronze statue was originally made in the 5th C, but those missing parts were cast and replaced in the 15th C.
We have been to numerous castles, but decided we'd still visit the one located in Barletta. It was originally built in the 12th C. by the Normans with Frederick II occupying it from 1225 a 1228. Its location allowed for it to be shelter for Knights returning or going to the Holy Land during the Crusades. The castle was modified with fortifications added by Charles V during the period from 1458 - 1481 with reinforcements added to the walls and defensive slits added making it more of a fort than a castle.
Each castle we visit we see something different and this was the case here as well. We were allowed down to the basement which actually led to what they call the sound room. It is a large open area that has an opening in the roof which helped with the dispersal of the noise made by the cannons that were used from here. Only problem with the underground rooms
Sometimes You Have to Look Closely
how is this for a welcome over the door? was that there was no labeling so it took a little time to find a person that actually knew what the rooms were used for. We had a few guesses, but were interested in finding out what they knew about the space. The castle also had a great display of various artifacts that have been found in the area. A collection of artwork, silver, weapons and pottery from the 19th and 20th C. was also on display due to the generous donation from a collector.
The Cathedral can easily been seen from the castle giving an excellent view of its roof line which was unusual. Instead of one solid roof it was built with multiple hipped roofs. The Cathedral was built on top of a earlier Christian basilica from the 6th C. BC as can be seen from the stratification that show up easily in the catacombs. When you enter the catacombs there is vending machine that you put money to pay for the lighting while there. You have to pick the amount of time you want for the lights to remain lite. We started to wander through and found that there was more to see than we thought.
They also had excellent signage explaining what you were seeing. It was much bigger than we thought and part way through the lights went out and it was very, very dark! Out came the cell phone and we got good use out of the flashlight feature. It was quite an interesting place to visit as it showed the various layers under the church and there were some wonderful mosaics as well. Thank goodness for the flashlight feature on the cell phone as we used that to find our way back to the entrance!
The last place we visited in Barletta was a gallery displaying the artwork of Giuseppe DeNittis, a native of here. He lived in both Paris and London and was influenced by the impressionist painters of his time which definitely showed in his work. We enjoyed the artwork, but also the Palazzo Della Marra which is where it was on display was an impressive building itself.
For putting together this day trip quickly it actually came together quite well and we enjoyed having a chance to visit another town on the east coast of Italy. There is so much history here pretty much wherever you go
you will find something to learn!
Trani was also hosting a Tango Festival for a few days and the first night was tonight so we went out in the evening to watch the dancers. There were quite a few couples and many of them were wonderful to watch. It made a nice ending for a wonderful day.
Today is our last day in Italy as it looks like the weather is good for us to cross to Croatia. It will be an overnight passage so wanted to be sure the weather was in agreement with our plans- as we say we may think we are going somewhere, but the weather forecast definitely has the final say!
We have thoroughly enjoyed all of our time in Italy - the west coast, Sicily and the east coast, but with the regulations we have to live by here of being out of any country that signed the Schengen Agreement 3 months of a 6 month period it is important for us to get to Croatia to help us stay legal! We also have been looking forward to seeing it for ourselves as we have heard it is a beautiful country.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 33; dbt: 0.0527s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
